Town of Grand Chute public works director Katie Schwartz and parks director Seth Westberg show a section of the Arrowhead Park wooden boardwalk. The Joint Finance Committee held up the state’s share of funding for the $1.3 million project for more than two months without explanation. (Jacob Resneck / Wisconsin Watch)
By Jacob Resneck
Wisconsin Watch
GRAND CHUTE — Along a sagging marshland boardwalk near Appleton’s airport, woodpeckers root out grubs from the pitted ash trees.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources late last year approved paying for half of a $1.3 million rehabilitation project that would remove the diseased trees, improve safety and replace Arrowhead Park’s boardwalk.
But an anonymous objection raised by the state’s powerful budget committee left local officials scrambling to figure out why the project’s funding had been blocked. The committee later approved a smaller amount.
“Whoever objected thought it was too much,” said Katie Schwartz, the town of Grand Chute’s public works director. “And so we were given some different options for how to move forward. But that was the extent of it.”
Such objections from the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee (JFC) have become increasingly common under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, with land conservation in the Northwoods especially targeted.
Wisconsin Watch found the committee has failed to follow state law, which requires scheduling a public hearing on spending halted by such anonymous objections.
The effect is a secretive “pocket veto” over projects and programs, ranging from $15.5 million for recreational access along the Pelican River to a historic fraternity house remodel in Madison and a $17.5 million program to encourage low-income Wisconsinites on Medicaid to become vaccinated — all without a public hearing or explanation.
Evers has so far been unwilling to challenge the committee’s legal authority. Instead he has called in his proposed budget for an end to the secrecy that committee members from both parties have historically used to block spending.